


Silence is Relative

by Malathyne



Series: elle days bits & bobs [4]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Family Feels, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-22
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-11-03 17:09:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17881847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malathyne/pseuds/Malathyne
Summary: Lorenzo is dead, and it's only a matter of time now before the rest of his family follows. The Sole Survivor struggles to accept it, when they so recently started considering her family, too. As always, optimism is Jack's defense mechanism, even in the face of all this.Aka, it's not fair that we can't be more sympathetic to Jack after the quest is over. The man deserves a hug.(Note: SoSu is Courier-turned-SoSu, for a smidgen of context.)





	Silence is Relative

It’s hard to call the chamber  _silent_  with the generators humming away to themselves, too loud to be relegated to background noise. But just minutes ago, the chaos of combat filled the entire basement, and in comparison, the absence of gunfire is deafening. 

Elle watches Jack stare into the containment cell at his father’s body, and for once in her life, feels at a loss for words. She won the Second Battle with her words, ultimately, used them to gather allies, shore up her friends, deliver final blows. But she doesn’t think there’s anything she could say that would hold up against this weight. The weight of four hundred years… ending… like this. 

_You did what you could_. But Elle hears her own insecurities reflecting off it already, answering,  _but it wasn’t enough_. She knows… Jack is like her when it comes to thoughts like those. It wouldn’t help. He’d only feel worse. 

_You did what you had to._  And what a terrible thing to have to do. After all this time, everything he did to try to save his father, and… He said it himself before: If it came to it, he would do it. He would  _have_  to do it. All the times he reassured her as they fought their way through the asylum, every time he told her, ‘do what I say, and it’ll turn out fine’… Elle had thought he said those things because he saw the worry in her face and misread her concern for him. But how much of that was his attempts to convince himself, as much as it was for her? 

He had to kill his father. And… in doing so… kill the rest of his family, too. Without Lorenzo’s blood, without the serum… 

Elle’s heart stutters in her chest. How long do they have? How long… does  _she_  have with them? Jack wanted to save his father, piece his family back together. And she… She doesn’t know when she’ll see hers again. Her friends. Doesn’t know if they’ll still be there when she finally makes it back home. When Jack folded her into his, she never thought… she could be so close to losing  _them_ , too. 

“Jack…” Her voice wavers, catches in the lump in her throat.  

At first, she doesn’t know if he can hear her over the generators, but then he sighs. It has all the weight of centuries of failure. He lifts his chin. “I think, this time, I really was close to finding a way to cure him…”  


_Jack._

Elle’s feet are shuffling forward on their own. Her arms uncurl from near her body, hands reaching for him, but haltingly. She doesn’t know — if he likes to be touched when he’s upset. But she… She has to do  _something_. And he… He needs her right now. Her  _brother_ … needs her. No matter the brave face he’s trying to put on. 

Her fingertips brush against the back of his lab coat; she’s still too hesitant to make proper contact. But he doesn’t react that she can see (he blinks), doesn’t pull away, so she keeps going, applies just enough pressure so she touches something more solid than fabric. He’s warm, even to just the pinpoints of her fingers, chilled by the cold air here. She glides them up to his shoulderblade, palm brushing.  

Jack’s exhale trembles, and she can hear it. She shuffles closer, her other hand touching his side, curls her fingers in his coat. She’s close enough she can press her forehead against his back, so... She does. This isn’t — It’s not a hug. Not really. But she doesn’t think… he’ll accept one right now. Even so, just from this… He’s lowering his chin again. 

“I’m sorry.” Her words are muffled against him, but she knows he hears her, because he tries to answer.  


“I…” His breath catches. When he tries again, his tone is hollow, but… that’s okay. “Thank you.” 

**Author's Note:**

> [The tumblr version has (edited) screenshots.](http://gwinnetts.tumblr.com/post/182905147691/its-hard-to-call-the-chamber-silent-with-the)
> 
> If it makes anyone feel any better, I'm (slowly) planning a sprawling fic centered on the Cabot questline and expanding on it quite a lot, including an alternate ending. Consider this a snapshot of a single moment in time.


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